The first "zero" Kaisheva
The Saturday program of the stage in Salt Lake City opened with a women's pursuit. The Russian athletes chances for medals were frankly low - according to the results of the sprint, except that Margarita Vasilyeva and Ulyana Kaisheva finished in the top ten, earning more than a minute behind the Norwegian Martha Reuceland. Leysan Biktasheva was supposed to start the 44th, and Valeria Vasnetsova did not take part at all by the decision of the coaching staff.
And although the Russians didn’t really get into the fight even for the flower ceremony, Kaisheva held the race so that she could be proud of it. The 20th biathlete launched for the first time closed all 20 targets at the World Cup. The last time at international competitions she shot so purely two years ago at the IBU Cup stage.
True, at the same time Kaisheva could not run at the level of the pursuit leaders. She played nine positions and finished 11th, which was her best result this season. If we discard the starting backlog, then Kaisheva would take the eighth position and repeat the best personal result in the cup race.
Other Russians lost their positions in the sprint. Vasilyeva dropped to 15th place because of two blunders on the bed. Biktasheva due to four mistakes in shooting took only the 49th line.
Change yellow jersey
The female pursuit race itself turned out to be eventful. Sprint winner Martha Ryuislend immediately relinquished the leadership burden to Anastasia Kuzmina, who had a clean first shot. Very few people managed to avoid penalty circles, but Dorothea Wierer suffered particularly badly due to blunders. She made three misfires, while her main pursuer in the World Cup, Lisa Vittozzi, was able to send all the cartridges to the target.
Kuzmina did not lead long, to two misses in the second shooting. By that time, Franziska Hildebrand, a German woman, who had gone half the distance, made her claim to gold. Her compatriot, Denise Herrman, was rapidly reducing the backlog and could have moved from the seventh place to the first, if it had not been a mistake at the third shooting, in which Hildebrand was again flawless.
But as soon as the two German girls entered the penalty loop together at the last shooting, the favorite in their argument became obvious. Herrman ran too well and managed to snatch victory, although at times she lost to Hildebrand for half a minute. Former skier for the third time in her career won the biathlon race in the World Cup.
Your Top 3 of the women's pursuit in # SOHO19
🥇🇩🇪 Denise Herrmann @skiverband
🥈🇩🇪 Franziska Hildebrand @skiverband
🥉🇫🇮 @ kmakarainen @ BiathlonFI
You can rewatch the competition on https://t.co/bk5aBBaMLgpic.twitter.com/FjxPeViUVv
The third to the finish came Kaisa Mäkäräinen, who started the second. She could well have maintained her position and even climbed up if it were not for the shooting that was weak by her standards - the Finn had finished the race with three misses and 16 seconds behind Herrman. Mäkärinyenen climbed the line of podium for the 84th time in his career - more often it was only Swede Magdalena Forsberg who won 87 medals.
Dorothea Wirer conducted a terrible race for herself and was mistaken at each firing line. In total, she has accumulated eight misses, so the 20th place was the ultimate dream for the Italian. Now the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader will go over to Vittozzi - she went ahead by seven points. For the first time an athlete can try on a leader’s jersey at the World Championships in Östersund.
It’s official time for its first time at the World Championships in # 2019ostersund
You can rewatch on https://t.co/bk5aBBso9Q#SOHO19pic.twitter.com/liY4zCKUui
Loginov replaced Garanicheva
In the men's pursuit, the Russian national team also suffered losses - Yevgeny Garanichev was late for the start, having confused his time, and was not allowed to compete. For his absence, it was especially insulting, since it was he who was the best of the Russians in the sprint and received the 15th starting number with which he could claim a high result.
But Alexander Loginov was determined to correct for the unfortunate performance on the first day. From his terrible standing shooting, he could start the race only 28th. However, a big backlog from Vetle Shosty Christiansen was not a problem for the leader of the Russian team. The vice-leader of the World Cup, even with two misses in the second shooting, moved from the third ten to the second, and soon began to claim even more.
At the last firing line, Loginov became a contender for getting into the top five of the strongest - his rivals were mistaken in large numbers, allowing for two or three misses. The Russian was also unable to work cleanly, but at least he left only one penalty circle. At the last leg of the distance, Loginov showed excellent speed and climbed to seventh place, overtaking Canadian Christian Gow - who, thanks to flawless shooting, made an even more impressive jump from 44th place.
A fight for gold for a long time led the two best participants in the sprint - the Norwegian Vetle Shost Kristiansen tried to restrain the Frenchman Simon Destie. But after the second shooting, Kenten Fillon Maya came up to them, who had just shot him. Together they formed a leading group, which was destined to play the medals in the final shooting. Destie made a blunder and had to be content with bronze, and his compatriot at a distance dealt with Christiansen.
Pasyut in Salt Lake City was another unsuccessful race of World Cup leader Johannes Be. He missed half the shots while standing and could not claim anything more than fourth place at the end of the day. The Norwegian may be calm for his yellow leader's jersey, but for the second time in a row he was left without medals, which was not happening to him this season yet.
Your pursuit in # SOHO19 🇫🇷🇳🇴🇫🇷
You can rewatch the competition on https://t.co/bk5aBBso9Qpic.twitter.com/VVNUsw7Frq